Late Hate, Tender Forever
by Aquailita
Summary: Heartbroken in the past by a girl named Enama, who was friends with Ryo, his host at the time, Yami Bakura explains how he caused the death of Enama's reincarnation and present-day Ryou's sister, Amane. He then returns to Ryou the memory of the day they met, which went horribly wrong. Even after learning all of this, Ryou does him a favor by reuniting him with a former host.
1. Enama

Late Hate, Tender Forever

Summary: Heartbroken in the past by a girl named Enama, who was friends with his host at the time, Ryo, Yami Bakura explains how he alone caused the death of Enama's reincarnation and present-day Ryou's sister, Amane.

Characters: Yami Bakura, Ryou Bakura, Amane Bakura

Genres: Hurt/Comfort, Tradgety, & Romance

Rating: T, to be safe

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**This AN, and all the others, will be short. All I am saying in this one is that I had _another_ awesome idea. And despite all of my already in-progress stories, here is another one I feel I must start. I feel like any explanation or lengthy ANs will kill the mood of the story.**

**Lateshipping (Amane Bakura X Yami Bakura) and tendershipping (Ryou Bakura X Yami Bakura).  
Physical character traits are based off of those from Season 0 (AKA the first series anime).**

**Edit from 8/20/13: I have decided to make this fanfic have parts. Part 1 begins here. I also edited the summary. No changes were made to the actual chapter content itself.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero or otherwise, or any of its characters._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

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**PART ONE**

_THE TRAGEDY_

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_"I am sorry, my love. But it is over for us. It just has to be."_

_I watched her walk away from me. I still knelt on the ground and clutched my chest with one hand, the pendant around my neck with the other, and sobbed._

_How could she do that to me?! And when I had finally remembered how to feel. I couldn't believe she would just do that when she knew how I felt about her...about life...about the rest of the world...about this land that I was a stranger to at the same time as being at home in it. I couldn't believe it._

_I had learned to love and feel again, and she had taken it all away, torn it from me and made me suffer. And it might have been all because of the soul I share a body with. My other half. Her friend, whose hair was the exact same shade of white as hers and my own._

_Ryo. My hikari._

_His friend, who I had fallen in love with, had just crushed the heart I had forgotten I'd had._

_Seeing as I had been chasing down the Pharaoh all these millennia and harboring a grudge against him, I knew for a fact that I was the type of person to never let an incident go. I knew at that moment, as she walked away, that despite whatever my head told me was the most reasonable thing to do and not to do, my heart was too powerful to care about obeying it, and would always win in a battle with it._

_I was actually quite relieved that she was leaving after hurting me so much. Because if she stayed near me, and if I saw her again, I am positive that my heart would take over my reason and what little compassion she had made me experience would be destroyed in my extreme hurt and hatred which would start forming within at that moment. If I were to see her again, the contrast between the happiness I had been able to experience with her and the sadness and despair I felt then would be made evident in my actions to kill her the next time I saw her._

_So I was glad that she was leaving after that. Because I knew that there was no way she would come back to me and there is no way I would forgive her and the darkness in my heart would compel me to lash out at her. Violently. I would probably even not bother to torture her _soul_ and just go straight for her body._

_This darkness and contrast between my positive emotions and my negative emotions is what makes me so inhuman. And it was what she helped me control. Now that she was gone... She hurt me more than just breaking my heart, she hurt me by taking away the only means of emotional control that I had. She did more than just emotionally destroy me. She opened me up to the positive emotions I had been unable to and didn't let myself feel for so long. Once I was open to those emotions, I was also susceptible to the negative ones. Then she gave me a taste of those bad ones. The ones that eat at people's hearts and traumatized them and dominate their thoughts. The ones that hurt. The ones that can madden people. The ones that I had cast aside to keep them from distracting me on my quest. The ones that had almost destroyed me when the reason for my revenge happened._

_The harsh truth was: that if I ever saw her again, which I was so sure that I wouldn't, I would kill her._

_As for my current host, Ryo? Well let's just say that only Ra can remember what I was thinking about him at the time. Even I didn't know._

_But were I to ever, in any of my lifetimes and through any of my future hosts, see a face like Enama's again, I would certainly kill the owner of the face, whether my reason fought it or not._

_And reason certainly wasn't in control of me when I saw Amane._

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**How was that?**

**I have no idea when my next update will be. Neither do you. Now we're even.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	2. Amane

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero or otherwise, or any of its characters._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

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_I was not in control when I saw her. He was._

_It was sad, really, what this incident did to us. I had actually come to tolerate Kafia. He had a 'dark' side to his soul as well, and I gladly used that to help me. We were in collaboration, and he wasn't simply just a vessel to me like all the others. He _did_ have a conscience and integrity, but when I talked to him he forgot that. I didn't treat him as my equal, not by a long shot. However, I didn't have to treat him as bad or punish him as often or as harshly as I did the others. At least his company amused me. He said the strangest things, sometimes. Did I like him? Not really. Did I particularly dislike him? No. He was pretty easy to manipulate._

_But that day, he proved that he could fight back. Not that it changed what happened._

_He'd had short and straight shoulder-length dark hair and grey-violet eyes. His hair spiked up slightly when I took over. He was 20._

_We were his car, listening to the radio. Rather, _he_ was. I didn't like the kind of music he listened to. I was sitting in my soul room, bored and thinking about a little incident that had occurred the previous day._

_Then he saw her, walking down the street holding a woman's hand. "Aw. How adorable," he muttered. I had nothing better to pay attention to, so I decided to look through his eyes to see what he thought was so "adorable"._

_And when I did, I saw her._

_That face... I saw that face again. But my mind knew what I would do, and refused to give a name or let my heart recall the identity of the one who had once had a face just like hers._

_She looked to be about four years old. She was walking with her mother away from a store, seemingly towards a car behind the one we sat in. She was wearing a green sundress that complimented her sky blue eyes, and she had that same hair, same color and style, that I remember her's looking like so long ago. Her mother wore a similar sundress but in blue and decorated with silver flowers on the hem and sleeves, had the same hair but slightly bluer, and her eyes were green instead of blue._

_Without Kafia realizing it, I took control of his arm and made him lower the window on the passenger side._

_"Amane! Slow down!" her mother said to her. The little girl was dragging her along, trying to hurry to the car._

_In my mind, I registered her name and spelled it out._

_A-M-A-N-E_

_My heart finally tore the name away from my mind. It could have been fate toying with me or simply a coincidence, but AMANE was ENAMA backwards. Time and reincarnation are strange like that._

_Enama._

_Enama..._

_I saw her again._

_The vow my heart made so many centuries ago came back to me._

_Destroy._

_"But I wanna go home! Please hurry up, mother! Please!"_

_I stared at the pair. The mother's face wasn't familiar. All I cared about was her daughter. _

_Amane._

_E__nama._

_Kafia's hands gripped the wheel. Or rather, _my_ hands did. I gripped it so tightly that my veins were visible._

_He appeared in the passenger seat next to me, partially blocking my view of the girl with his translucent spirit form._

_"Bakura," he said to me. "I can sense what you want to do to her. Don't do it. It's not her. Don't do it."_

_I glared at him. "It's not _who_, Kafia?" I asked in a low voice. "You would only know if you've been in my soul room which I specifically told you _not_ to do ever. Now shut up and don't try to stop me. I know what I have to..."_

_"No! Yami... Stop this! You can't do this! Not again! If you do this I'll get in trouble."_

_I laughed at that. "Do you think I really care, light? I don't." I put the key in the ignition and started the car. By that point, Amane and her mother had reached their vehicle._

_"No! I can't let you do this! You said you would stop!"_

_"And you believed me?"_

_He bit his lip and nodded a little. "Erm... I actually kinda sorta did."_

_"Well you were mistaken."_

_I watched them enter and start the car through the rearview mirror. Amane smiled. Just like she had smiled all those years ago..._

_I hadn't thought of her since my previous host, the one before Kafia. My time with Kafia had somehow managed to not remind me of her at all. Not once._

_Yet here she was, in the 21st century, within my reach._

_Enama._

_"Stop it!" he cried. Caught up in my thoughts, I was too distracted to focus on keeping him out of control. He wrestled control of our body from me and started reaching for two things. He reached for the keys with his right hand...and for the string of the Millenium Ring with his left hand._

_He did it fast, but I was faster. He succeeded in removing the string from around his neck, but before he was able to pull the Ring out from underneath his shirt, I acted like I had done so many times that it was almost instantaneous. The five points of the Millenium Ring were lodged in his skin. He let go of the string and keys and clutched his chest in pain. With him distracted, I was able to take over again. I carefully put the string back around my neck and put the keys back into the ignition again._

_Amane and her mother had just driven out of the parking spot. They were next to us, caught at the corner because of a red light. I looked at Amane, who sat in the car seat in the back. She absent-mindedly looked out the window and her eyes met mine._

_I froze. Her whole face looked exactly like Enama's did, that was clear now that I was closer to her. Those eyes... Same shape. As I had already observed, they were sky blue, like hers used to be._

_She didn't recognize me. Of course not. Why would she have? But I recognized her. My heart skipped a beat and my breathing halted for a moment._

_She smiled at me. Then she looked away._

_The light turned green and the car sped off._

_I suddenly became aware that Kafia had appeared next to me again._

_He shook his head at me, his eyes full of fear and worry. And concern. "Yami...don't."_

_My anger flared up just then. At that moment, I would have lashed out at him. But I didn't, because my heart had control over my emotions. And it knew where to direct them. So, ignoring him, I drove off after them._

_I dislodged the Millenium Ring from my skin. Still covered in blood, I used it to paralyze Kafia's mind so that he was stuck in a trance and forced to watch what I was about to do. He didn't have enough mind to retreat into his soul room or try to take control again. He just watched._

_I still don't know why I did that when I could have just as easily locked him in his soul room._

_I activated the Ring's directional powers. I didn't follow the other car. Instead, I let the Ring guide me though the streets to a route that was faster than the one that Amane and her mother were taking and would allow me to cut them off. Finally, I saw them again. We both had the red light and were on opposite sides of the intersection. I stared at her again._

_Amane._

_She noticed me again and smiled. I don't know why she kept smiling at me. She didn't know me. And there's no reason why I would make her smile. If anything, my expression, if she had good enough eyesight to see it, should have made her scared. Maybe even cry, at her age._

_That smile bothered me. It was the last thing I had seen on Enama's face. The last expression she had looked at me with had probably been a frown, but before I had bowed my head and fallen to my knees, the last thing I saw on her face was that smile. The smile I had grown to love, then grown to hate, was on the face of a child that had been brought to me by fate._

_My mind shut down altogether and my heart took over completely. I could imagine that my soul room was probably so dark at that moment that even _I_ would not have been able to see in it._

_They were going to make a turn, to the left (_my_ left, but to her right). I signaled left._

_The light turned green._

_I sped up and turned._

_She turned as well._

_To add to the chaos, I even forcefully switched out with Kafia. His confusion would make us go out of control and make the "accident" that much worse._

_And it did. He blinked in surprise, my mental paralysis over him now gone, and realized too late what he was doing and hit the brakes too late to stop the collision._

_I projected myself outside of the car and watched the destruction with satisfaction. No...not even satisfaction. More like approval and accomplishment. It was nice to see it happen, but far from _satisfying_._

_The sound of colliding metal, breaking glass, inflating airbags, and two screams could be heard. One of the screams was my host. The other one was Amane's mother._

_I smiled wide, not quite myself (whoever I was at that moment. But at that moment, I was probably the version of me from back then who had been heartbroken and irrational and craving the satisfaction of breaking the one who broke me). I laughed at the gruesome scene before me. I was no stranger to this sort of thing. But...it was _her_. _

_Amane. _

_Enama._

_The Millenium Ring flashed. It had just made some sort of connection to something, but at the time I didn't know what that something was._

_Then I remembered my host. I floated back over to his car and looked inside. He was alive, which was good (and also obvious, seeing as I was still existing as well). But he was hurt. His forehead was bleeding, there were bits and pieces of broken glass in his arms and face, and his shirt was torn, also by glass. The door was bent inwards, pinning his left arm to the back of the seat. I couldn't see much more than that. He was obviously in pain. He turned his head as much as he could, with a wince, and looked up at me with sad and horrified eyes, like he couldn't believe what I had just done. I never killed people in front of him, and this murder was one of my worse. Never before had I caused a car crash, whether to his knowledge or not, whether he had witnessed it or not._

_He was scared of me before, but now he was terrified. I could tell. He was scared of what my emotions could drive me to do. To keep his loyalty and obedience, I wanted to reassure him that what I had done was a one-time thing and wouldn't happen again unless absolutely necessary. But the darkness that I couldn't control and was dominating my heart and crushing my reason was too great, and I didn't say anything. Not even a small "are you okay?" or "it's done" or even "never speak of this again"._

_Within minutes, the police and ambulances arrived. During that time, I was able to get a glimpse of the mother's face through all of the smoke and blood and metal. It was pale and lifeless. Her green eyes were open and stared at nothing. Now that I was looking at them, I couldn't help but think that they were the exact same color as Ryou's. One of her arms was bent back as if she was trying to reach for the small child in the back seat before she died._

_And as for that child... It looked like she was sleeping. Her eyes were closed almost completely. I could see a tiny hint of blue from between her eyelids. Her sundress and hair were stained with blood and covered in broken glass that together sparkled in the sunlight that hit her, contrasting yet complimenting her hair and eyes beautifully. In death, she looked asleep. And I had always thought that when Enama slept, she looked dead. Both were eerily beautiful._

_Slowly, as I stared at her face, I could feel some of the darkness that had lay dormant in my soul room, waiting for this exact occurrence to come out and take over me and cloud my mind, start slowly receding and diminishing. I had gotten back at her for doing to me what she did: o__pened my heart, let in the light, then reminded me how much the dark truly hurt when it wasn't on your side. My darkness certainly wasn't on my side. And as my reason returned to me, I realized that. The darkness in my heart that made me do that to her wasn't on my side. I realized that I didn't want the darkness brought forth by emotions like those. I preferred the darkness that came with power, strength, endurance, and purpose. The darkness that was helping me._

_I realized in horror that what I had just done was highly unnecessary. I, who had no qualms against murdering people just for fun, was slightly sickened at the fact that I had murdered an innocent child to satisfy a past grievance. Emotional turmoil was much more of a justification than enjoyment to kill someone. And yet, it was wrong. The reason for that was nothing like my true quest for revenge. What I had done was something stupid and should have been meaningless to me, regardless of the reason. But the thing was, it _was_ meaningless to me, at one point at least. I simply did that because emotions and darkness that weren't my own had made me do it._

_So as I watched her bloodied, glass-covered, lifeless face, I frowned and actually felt something that no one else but Enama and Amane could have made me feel: guilt._

_Or was it regret? Even now, I am still unsure of whether I felt guilty about it, or simply regretted doing it. Perhaps I'll never know..._

_I tore my gaze away from her and turned back to the occupant of the car next to me. I stared at my host, unsure of what expression was on my face._

_It must have been nothing, because I saw his eyes dart around my face, seemingly looking for some trace of emotion._

_Through our mind link, he said to me, _"How..."_ From opening the mind link communication between us, he accidentally let some of his emotions through. I could tell that he was scared of me. He was in shock about what I had made him witness. He was horrified about what had happened. And he was angry at me. That was because, I heard him think, that he would be in a lot of trouble. He couldn't blame it on me, a person who didn't legally exist. He couldn't get out of the medical or legal consequences of it. Basically, he was in trouble with the law and had to deal with the hospital. He hoped that no one would think that he had been drinking while driving. What happened to him now was all my fault, not to mention the fact that I had just murdered a mother and her child who was the reincarnation of a past love. (From what he said earlier, I'm sure that he snooped around in my soul room and knew who I was comparing Amane to.)_

_I don't know what compelled me to do what I did next. I moved to the seat next to him. I lowered my head. Despite the intangible form I was in, I felt something wet on my face. I felt it, thinking that somehow it might be blood that stayed with me when Kafia's face was cut, but it wasn't. What was on my face had no color. I realized, a bit angrily, that I was actually crying. I didn't understand why, though. Why would I care about something like this? And even if I did care, why would I shed even a single tear over it?_

_Then I realized why: it was because Enama had opened my heart and my time with her was the first time in centuries that I had ever cried._

_She, and her reincarnation, Amane, were gone, but their influences still lingered._

_I felt, and was surprised that I was able to feel, Kafia's free hand on my shoulder. I picked up my head and looked at him. He nodded at me and a silent message passed from him to me. 'I get it. Sorry this happened to you. But I still hate you because of this.'_

_I nodded back and hoped my face read 'I really don't care. Leave me alone. I'll get over it. I'm Yami Kafia, remember?'_

_'I remember.'_

_The paramedics reached us and that was all I saw of whatever happened next. I retreated into the Millenium Ring (I didn't even dare to go back to my soul room for fear of what I might find there and be confronted with) for the rest of the trip there._

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**I don't really like how I wrote next chapter all that much. When I fix it to my satisfaction, I will give it to you.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	3. Hospital

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero or otherwise, or any of its characters._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

_Kafia was separated from the Ring._

_Because our mind link was strong due to our constant interaction, I was still able to project outside of him. It helped that the Ring still stayed in the building, as part of Kafia's belongings. _

_He remained conscious and told them a story of what had happened: He hadn't seen her- Amane's mother- signal and had gotten distracted by something and crashed. He later had to make up the story that the 'something' had been his pendant cutting him, in order to explain what had happened to his chest. They figured out early on that he hadn't been intoxicated. But they _did_ have him (meaning me in his body) as a suspect for a handful of unsolved crimes in the city he lived in, so he was under close watch._

_I stayed with him and watched him to monitor the health of the person I used as a vessel. He tried to talk to me, but not only was our link fading because he wasn't wearing the Ring, also I didn't answer him. I didn't talk to him at all. Not a word. Anything I was interested in asking him, I could see and sense for myself._

_When I wasn't watching Kafia, I spent my time trying to find Amane in the same hospital. I don't know why she or her mother would be there because it should have been very obvious that both of them were dead. I searched for her nonetheless. Why? I have no idea._

_I am not sure if this really happened because the memory is still a bit fuzzy, but I think I succeeded. I think I was able to find her and her mother's room. (Again, I have no idea why they would have a room if they were obviously dead.) I only let myself see her mother, however. I was too afraid of what I might do if I saw Amane again. _

_I might have seen a man with a small child there. I didn't get to look at their faces at that moment. Trust me, I would have remembered them if I had. I left too quickly. _

_However, what I _do_ remember was watching who appeared to be the same man and child walking _out_ of a room when I was trying to find my way back to Kafia. The man had dark blue hair. That was the only thing about him that caught my attention, because he was facing away from me. But the child, however, wasn't. And as for what he looked like..._

_Same face and eyes as Amane's mother, same hair color as Amane. He looked to be about six._

_If I hadn't been on edge about Enama after what I'd done to Amane, I would have examined both of them further. My mind warned against it, and I kept going back to Kafia's room._

_Those two were the last people I saw in the hospital other than Kafia._

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_I returned to his room. __When I did, I sensed something happening with our mind link. It was at its weakest. It was as weak as it could possibly be with me still able to contact him or project outside of his body. I quickly told him so. To not put any stress on the bond, I talked to him from my soul room._

"Wait...what?"_ he said, clearly caught off guard._

_It was the first exchange of dialogue that we'd had the entire time he had been there. __Just in case it was also our last, I quickly said to him, _"Thank you for being a cooperative and tolerable host. Sorry for getting you in trouble with the law. I'll probably never see you again. If I do, it'll be in a different body. Glad to know that you haven't grown too attached to me. Good bye."

"Bakura, wait!"

_As I had suspected, those were the last words I ever said to him. It was the last time we ever saw each other._

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**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	4. Egypt

**Cheesy title change might be cheesy. It might not. You tell me.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero or manga or otherwise, or any of its characters/trademarks._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

_Somehow, in the span of a month, the Millenium Ring ended up in Egypt. How Kafia lost the Ring and how the Ring made its way from England to Egypt within a month, I'll never know._

_It remained there for four years, as far as I was able to figure out._

_I had a feeling that my journey had not come to an end, but it wouldn't continue for a while. So I put myself into__ that strange and mindless state of 'sleep' I had long ago learned to put myself in to keep me from going mad during my waits between hosts. In this state, I lost track of time and space, depth and form, color and light. Only darkness and unaware._

_In the second year of being back in Egypt, a bolt of power surged through the Millenium Ring and it woke me from this sleep. I tried to investigate the source of the power, and discovered that it had come from the Ring itself._

_I was able to project my consciousness outside of the Item so I could see what was going on. What I found was not unusual to me. A common and lowly thief was 'standing' before someone who was very familiar to me: Shadi (he doesn't matter, I simply recognized him, seeing as I did 'kill' him). Because of the room they were both in, I knew what had happened: the thief had tried to steal the Ring. I say 'standing' because he wasn't standing; he was on his knees. __The five points of the Millenium Ring were painfully and gruesomely piercing his chest. His eyes were fiery and flames shot out of his mouth. I would describe it more but I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear that. To put it simply: Shadi was testing to see if this thief was worthy of bearing the Item he had tried to steal, and the thief had failed the test miserably._

_Whenever such a thing happened (and it happened surprisingly often, but this was the first time it had happened this century), it always struck me as ironic. A thief not being worthy of an Item holding another thief. But then again, not everyone is worth of the King's presence._

_My heart sank. It looked like I would be sleeping for a while longer._

_But it wasn't that much longer. My wait consisted of the next two years the Ring was in Egypt. Since the wait time was relatively short compared to how long I had waited in the past, before Kafia, it felt like I was reawakening almost an instant later when I did._

_This time, the Millenium Ring didn't awaken me; the presence of a person holding it did. I didn't get my hopes up. It could have been someone who had found the Ring and didn't know what it was. It could have been simply another thief trying to steal it. It could have been Shadi. It could even have been—I dared to hope—the person who beared the Puzzle, and had found the Ring as well! _

_It was none of those._

_The moment I sensed a familiar presence, I knew that whatever connection had been made on the day of the accident was about to come into play. And I knew that I wouldn't be disappointed by the events soon to come._

_I realized that whoever held the Ring wasn't wearing it and also wasn't one of those meant to wield its power. He was simply middleman of sorts who would take it to its rightful bearer._

_I _did_ manage to project myself outside of the Ring once. Only once. I didn't get a good look at myself, so I didn't know what I looked like when I projected. But I _did_ see the person who had obtained the Ring, as well as where we were._

_He was the same man I had seen in the hospital with the six year old child who looked like Amane's mother. __As for the location, we were still in Egypt. He was returning home from one of his expeditions, so it seemed, and had purchased the Millenium Ring from a street merchant on one of the last days of his visit. He was an archeologist who studied Ancient Egypt._

_I was surprised enough that the Ring had found its way from England to Egypt within a month. So I was even more surprised that it made its way from Egypt to back to England in the span of 24 hours after having stayed there for four years. My next host lived on the same country as my previous host. You might think of that as a coincidence, but I didn't and I never will. I've experienced too much to believe in coincidences._

_I wondered if I would see Kafia again. But I doubted it. It _had_ been four years, after all. I had no clue what had happened to him in those four years. He was most likely in serious trouble of all kinds. For all I know, he could have been in jail for murdering a mother and child _and_ for reckless driving, in a mental institute because they couldn't blame the accident on alcohol, or maybe even...  
I didn't—and still don't—want to think about that last possibility._

_But at any rate, the Ring was heading back to the UK. I knew that I would be soon united with my next host, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to project outside of the Millenium Ring._

_Shortly after I learned of our destination and the identity of the man, I was sucked back into the Ring. _

_I didn't reemerge until much later, when the Millenium Ring had been given to the 10 year-old boy who would end up being my vessel for the next eight years._

_You probably already figured this out already, but the archeologist who purchased the Millenium Ring had dark blue hair, while my next host had white hair. The same white hair Ryo had had so many years ago..._

_The archeologist was your father and of course _you_, Ryou Bakura, were the person who became my next vessel, my next hikari, and the person who ended up healing me after what Enama did to me and what I did to Amane._

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**It's interesting how names work in regard to Time, Fate, and Destiny. Especially on Yu-Gi-Oh.**

**Next chapter, as of the updating of this chapter, is not written out at all. Prepare for a long wait. No promises.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	5. Tears

**There's a reason why I changed the title. **

**Guess what? This story has a bigger plot than you were led to believe. Since when? About three days ago.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero or manga or otherwise, or any of its characters/trademarks._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

The spirit orb in Ryou's hand took to the air and flew away from him. It flew over to Bakura—who was sitting on the ground a foot in front of him—circled him three times, then came to rest in his lap. Once the contact between the soul and Ryou's hand ended, his eyes stopped glowing and returned to their normal shade of green.

"Go ahead," Bakura said. "Tell me you hate me. Say what you want. I won't mind."

Ryou remained silent. His interested and attentive expression morphed into...a complicated one. Ryou looked like he was in shock. No, simply taken aback. He looked like he was trying to process what he had just heard, and was pondering how he should react. There was a hint of pain in his eyes, which was understandable. He averted his gaze from Bakura's and stared off into the distance, looking at nothing in particular. His mouth was open very slightly. He remained silent.

Bakura waited a few more seconds for Ryou to respond. "Ryou?" he asked.

No reply.

"I understand." Bakura said after a few more seconds. He shooed away the spirit orb in his lap, and it flew off to another part of the room. "You probably need some time to process this. I'll leave, if you need some time alone." Bakura put his hands on the ground, pushed himself up, and prepared to stand. But before he did, Ryou finally spoke.

"N-no..." he said uneasily. "I'm fine. It's fine."

_That's a total lie_, Bakura thought. _He is most certainly _not_ fine._

Ryou looked Bakura in the eyes again. "It's fine," he repeated. However, he still looked shaken.

"I probably shouldn't have let you see by having the souls show you my memories," Bakura said, turning his gaze to the soul he had just shooed away.

"N-no," Ryou said, bringing Bakura's attention back to him. "I didn't—_don't_ mind. I needed to see that, not just hear about it." He looked down and smiled faintly. "And I especially needed to..." The smile faded instantly, replaced by a deep frown. "I needed to see what Amane's face looked like..." Ryou's voice began cracking. "I needed to see how she was smiling, see that smile one last time, b-before she..." His lip began trembling. He leaned forward and braced his hands on the floor on either side of him. He bowed his head. He looked up at Bakura for a second, just long enough for Bakura to see tears build up in the other's eyes, then immediately looked back down. "I-I'm glad I was giv-v-en the chance to s-see how sh-she was smiling b-b-before she...died."

Ryou was completely silent for a single instant after he said that word. Then the moment was over. He pierced the silence with his loud and uncontrollable sobs. He lifted his hands off the ground and wrapped his arms around himself, hugging himself tightly. He trembled uncontrollably as he cried. Tears ran down his face and fell to the floor.

Bakura feared that making any more to touch and/or comfort him would not work and might even make things worse, so he just sat there and watched Ryou cry, waiting for him to calm down enough.

It took longer than expected, especially considering how Ryou had kept calm when Bakura had been telling that particular part of the story...

Ryou's crying continued for another two minutes, and didn't seem to be stopping or quieting.

Bakura disregarded his earlier assumption that touching Ryou would make things worse, and moved closer to him. He tentatively put a hand on Ryou's shoulder. The instant his hand made contact, one of Ryou's hands moved with lightning speed to grab the arm attached to the hand. Bakura let go of Ryou's shoulder and froze.

Ryou's sobs didn't change in volume or frequency. He gripped tighter.

Bakura unfroze and moved closer. He put his other arm around Ryou and pulled the boy close to him. Bakura expected Ryou to push him away, but he didn't. Instead, he leaned into his embrace, moving closer still. Bakura hugged Ryou tightly, letting him hide his face in his dark's shoulder.

They stayed like this for an unknown amount of time, neither of them saying anything and the only sounds to be heard being Ryou's crying echoing throughout Bakura's soul room and the darkness itself.

As he held his hikari, Bakura thought back to how Ryou had acted while he had been telling the story...

* * *

_But were I to ever, in any of my lifetimes and through any of my future hosts, see a face like Enama's again, I would certainly kill the owner of the face, whether my reason fought it or not._

_And reason certainly wasn't in control of me when I saw Amane._

Ryou's face had gone from sorrowful and pitiful (which Bakura had hated) to shocked. Bakura knew how smart Ryou was, but hadn't thought that he would put the pieces together in a matter of seconds.

_I was not in control when I saw her. He was._

When Bakura had jumped several centuries ahead, and had started talking about Kafia and Amane and the car accident, Ryou's face had changed drastically. It went from being surprised and attentive to completely emotionless and neutral. There was not a single trace of emotion in it that Bakura could find. His body went completely still except for his breathing and blinking. Bakura had never seen Ryou look such a way before, but he had continued talking regardless.

_Amane._

_She noticed me again and smiled. I don't know why she kept smiling at me. She didn't know me. And there's no reason why I would make her smile. If anything, my expression, if she had good enough eyesight to see it, should have made her scared. Maybe even cry, at her age._

Bakura had the feeling that he had been mistaken, but he'd thought he saw the very faintest hint of a smile in Ryou's eyes when he mentioned Amane smiling at him. It was so faint that only someone who knew Ryou as well as Bakura did could have noticed it, and even he barely saw it. He had probably been mistaken, anyway.

_The paramedics reached us and that was all I saw of whatever happened next. I retreated into the Millenium Ring (I didn't even dare to go back to my soul room for fear of what I might find there and be confronted with) for the rest of the trip there._

After this, Ryou's face had changed drastically again. It went from being completely emotionless and neutral to being attentive and interested again, as if he hadn't heard any of what he had just been told or seen any of what he had just been shown.

_As I had suspected, those were the last words I ever said to him. It was the last time we ever saw each other._

Ryou's face had saddened slightly at that point. Bakura understood why.

_Somehow, in the span of a month, the Millenium Ring ended up in Egypt._

From there to the end of the retelling, Ryou's face had shown confusion at times. But the boy had kept silent, like Bakura had asked him to before he had begun talking.

* * *

Bakura knew that Ryou had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, and even predicted what he would ask. Now if only Ryou would calm down and stop crying so he could ask them.

But with the way that Ryou was still carrying on, Bakura suspected that he wouldn't stop anytime soon. That was alright. They had plenty of time to spare.

There was only a single break in his sobs, and it only lasted a single instant. But the break wasn't filled by silence, it was filled by a whisper from Ryou.

"_Amane_..."

* * *

**Future chapters will be much longer. Not necessarily the next ones, but future ones.**

**Should I make the past-Ryou's name "Ryou" or "Ryo"? This decision is bothering me.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	6. Goodbye

**I'm back. Here's another chapter.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero, Manga, or otherwise, or any of its characters._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

After he had whispered Amane's name, Ryou began to gradually calm down and quiet. It started with his trembling lessening. Then his breathing returned to normal. Then his sobs quieted down. Then the tears stopped falling.

Bakura loosened his hold on Ryou, but the light didn't move away. Instead, he stayed there for another minute, hugged Bakura back, then moved away immediately afterwards.

He wiped his eyes dry with the back of his hands. "Th-thank you for that."

"For..."

"The hug. I really, _really_ needed that..."

"So are you okay now or what?"

"I just..." Ryou's voice was still cracked slightly, but Bakura could tell that he had let all of his tears out and wouldn't start crying again. At least, not over his sister or mother. He sat up straight. "I just always felt that I didn't say goodbye to Amane properly that day. I remember that day so clearly. My mum, I gave her a big kiss and a hug before she walked out the door. Amane had gone back to our room because she had forgotten something, and wasn't at the door with me and Mum. I ran right past her on my way back to our room and on her way to the door. I didn't look at her or say a word to her." Ryou smiled very weakly. "I guess seeing her face again, smiling, in what you showed me... Well, I feel like that was the goodbye I never said."

"I never knew that about you before."

"I..." Ryou frowned and looked away. "No one did. I never told that to anyone before. Ever. Not even my father. You are the first person I've told."

Ryou zoned out for a few seconds as if remembering something. Then he zoned back in and blinked rapidly.

"But anyway, let's move on from that." He looked at Bakura again. "Tell me more."

"More about...what, exactly?" Bakura asked warily.

"The rest of the story."

"There's nothing left to tell. I came in here to tell you about Amane and I've done just that."

"The story about what happened to Amane may have been told, but you still have more to tell me."

Bakura tilted his head to the side and gave Ryou a confused look. "Where are you going with this?"

Ryou returned his confused look with an expectant one. "You ended off by saying that I was your next host. And out of all the memory lapses I've had so far, the one that has always bothered me the most is the one that happened after I received the Millenium Ring on the week of my birthday.

Bakura's eyes widened briefly. Ryou had never before brought that up. Bakura had long ago assumed that Ryou had either forgotten about it, disregarded it, or hadn't realized it. But it seemed that Ryou had _never_ forgotten, disregarded, or been ignorant to it. And now he was asking about it.

"I remember what memory lapses feel like," Ryou continued. There was a slight hint of accusation in his voice. "That one was different. I don't think I simply have a gap in my memory, I think you hid the memory from me deliberately. Am I right?"

Ryou was right. But Bakura didn't let his face show it.

"You've been keeping that memory hidden from me for some reason. Why?"

Bakura didn't want to tell Ryou. Despite having wanted to open up about certain things with him, he didn't want to Ryou remember what had happened when they first met. There was a reason he had kept it from him.

He would have kept it that way and insisted that Ryou let it go. But the hikari was staring straight at him, his green eyes wide, expectant, insistent, and curious.

In the past, with Ryo, that look had always shattered his will and convinced him to spill information. And now, with Ryou, it still did.

Bakura sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you. But I'll start at the beginning, when your father brought the Ring home."

* * *

**Meh... I don't really like how I wrote this and the next few chapters. I'll try to finish them up and breeze through them so we can get to the REAL fun. The interesting part.**

**Here's the thing. The big plot idea I came up with was thought of and written out BEFORE this part of the story was written (the part about telling Ryou about the gap in his memory and whatnot), and after the previous chapter was posted. This part of the story isn't as developed or organized as the part after it, and the part before it. But I'll try my best to sort everything out and have the chapters to my liking before I give them to you. Believe me, if I don't understand what's going on and I find too many plotholes and contradictions, it'll be worse when YOU read it. **

**So be patient, thank you, you're welcome, and...**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	7. Memory

**Hi. Have a chapter.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero, Manga, or otherwise, or any of its characters._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

"In the hospital, I had already realized the connection between you and Amane's mother because of how much you looked like her. However, I hadn't fully made the connection between you and Amane. I only realized this connection when you were actually given the Ring on your birthday and my soul came in contact with your soul for for the first time. This happened when our soul hallway was formed.

"My soul is directly connected to the Millenium Ring, and that's primarily where it resides. I don't have access to my soul room unless I have a host whose mind my soul room can be grounded to, hence the bond and hence the shared hallway.

"Since my mind wasn't fully grounded yet, I wasn't able to realize that you were directly related to Amane and her mother.

"When I did, after you were given the Ring, it shocked me so much that I hesitated to contact you right away, as I had done with most of my past vessels. Usually, I spent the first day in their soul room, exploring and examining it as well as letting our bond form and strengthen. The next day, I took over and got used to the new body for a while. Immediately after that, I visited them in their soul room and talked to them about what the circumstances were going to be from then on. I did this within the first two or three days, at a timing that I felt best fit the situation—and person—I was in.

"But with you, I was reluctant to enter your soul room. I didn't know what I would find or how I would react to it.

"I was trying to figure out how to react to you. Should I view you as a relation to Amane and therefore to Enama, and hate you? Should I view you as just another host, and not care about the fact that I had killed your sister? Should I interact with you as little as possible, and not contact you at all? Should I have felt guilty, and told you about it straightaway? Or should I...well...

"This you won't like. But one of the options would have been to kill you, as well, because of your connection to her."

"Yami! Are you serious! You would ha—"

"I would have. You know how... uncontrollable my emotions can be. I might have. I would have been content with waiting for the next host, as long as it wasn't you."

"So...why didn't you...?"

"Three reasons.  
"One: Something felt...right about you. You felt different from the others. I felt like, perhaps, you were the _one_. The one who would be the end of my quest.  
"Two: I had regained more control over my emotions since Amane. And I would have done that to you for no reason.  
"Three: I felt guilty, above all. I had already killed one Bakura, and I didn't want to do it again. I actually felt guilty about having done it. I felt like you were my chance at...'redemption'.

"This is what drove me to make my decision on what to do about you.

"I regretted what I did to Amane and why I had done it, and maybe, just maybe, I could make things right by acting differently with you. Not just in relation to Amane, but in relation to other hosts. I never really cared about any of my past hosts before, aside from _perhaps_ Kafia. I always just used them or took them for granted. Not you. You would be different.

"Going back to reason number one, I felt like my time in your body would be the most important time of my existence, so I might as well make it count if I was going to make amends for what I had done."

"So that's why you did all of those things to those around me..."

"It is. And you know what I did. Punishing all of those bullies and anyone who bothered you, sometimes taking over when you walked through dangerous areas, et cetera. And that's also why I turned your friends into this figurines. I was basically twisting your desire to want to play games with your friends forever, making it so that you could literally play with them forever. As for those particular incidents, I'm pretty sure you don't need me to tell you about any of them. You remember all of them now, right? I shared those events with you last year, the same way I just showed you what happened with Amane."

"Right. You did. But there's still one thing you have yet to tell me. I feel like you're trying to get out of telling me about it. I keep waiting for you to get to it."

"The memory lapse?"

"Exactly. I want to know about what happened when we met. I have a right to know."

Bakura opened his mouth to respond, but closed it. He decided to ask Ryou something before he told him anything. "How much do you remember? And how do you even remember that gap if it happened so long ago?"

"The details. That day changed my life forever. I always remember almost every detail about each of my birthdays. But the _real_ reason why I always have and always will remember that particular memory lapse is because it coincided with the one thing, other than my birthday, that always remained constant in my life no matter what." Ryou twisted around and looked at the front door of the spirit's soul room. He sighed and turned back around. "It's funny how much it overlaps with certain things that have happened to me. I was doing it on my birthday, I did it before and after each time I moved, I did it on the day of the Memory World incident, and I did it earlier today. It's the reason why you pulled me in here..."

"Ryou," Bakura said to cut him off. "Stop rambling on. You're talking about your letters to Amane, right?"

Ryou's mouth pulled into a tight line and he nodded. "Mmhmm," he said without opening his mouth.

"The letter you wrote that day is why you remember the day so clearly," Bakura guessed.

"No. Not really," Ryou replied quietly. "I do those regularly, as you know. And I never broke the schedule I had for doing them. I would remember if I had."

"So what happened that day made you not write one?" Bakura asked. "Is that how you knew something had happened that you didn't remember?"

"No. Not quite." Ryou averted his gaze. He looked like he was zoning out, but Bakura could tell that he wasn't zoned out. He was merely thinking. Or perhaps he was hesitating on saying what he wanted to say next? That, Bakura couldn't quite figure out.

"It's not that I forgot to write one. I did write one that day. But the thing that caught my attention and always bothered me, the one detail that I never understood until about a year ago, when you started opening up to me more..." Ryou's eyes refocused, and he looked Bakura straight in the eyes. "...was that I never finished it."

Bakura gasped internally.

"I might not have wondered why I had neglected to write one, but I definitely had always wondered why I had never finished. And now, yami, I want you to give me my memory back so I can remember why."

* * *

**Next chapter is barely planned out. Isn't that wonderful?!**

**I'll feel better once this part of the story is over.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	8. Gap

**We're back with the awesome plot.**

**This fanfic will be longer than I realized.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero, Manga, or otherwise, or any of its characters._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Bakura closed his eyes and inhaled with a sharp hiss. He _really_ didn't want Ryou to remember what had happened that day. It wasn't exactly the best of first meetings. Actually, because of its significance and the importance of _everyone_ connected to and involved with it, it was automatically promoted from "not exactly the best of first impressions" to "the absolute worst first impression he could have ever possibly managed". What had happened that day was one of the few things Bakura felt guilty about _and_ regretted.

Regret was not uncommon for him as one might think. However, guilt was extremely rare for him.  
Basically, regret is wishing you had done something differently. Guilt is pretty much feeling bad about it and wishing it had never happened.

In all the time since then he had thought about it, Bakura had never been able to think of a way he could have done things differently that day to make them not turn out as chaotic and catastrophic as they had turned out. After thinking about it, he realized that there _was_ nothing he could have done to make things turn out differently. He just simply wished that it had never happened in the first place. But since he couldn't actually erase that event and make it so that it had never happened, he had done the next best thing he could think of: erase Ryou's memory so that the event had never happened...from Ryou's perspective.

When a memory is hidden or erased, a gap is left behind. When Bakura erased Ryou's memory, he had dealt with the gap he formed in a way that would ensure that Ryou wouldn't realize that the gap even existed. He had blurred the moments in Ryou's memory just before and just after the gap and smudged them together so they covered the gap left behind by the memory of the events that had occurred between them. However, Ryou had something from that time that made him realize he had a hidden gap in his memory: the unfinished letter. So Ryou had realized that _something_ had happened, even if he didn't know what that something was.

And now he wanted that gap to be revealed and filled.

When Bakura had taken Ryou into his soul room earlier to tell him about Amane and Enama, he promised Ryou honesty and openness. That was what Ryou was expecting.

And it would only make things worse if he didn't give it to him.

All of these thoughts had run through Bakura's mind in the span of only three seconds.

He opened his eyes. "Fine. I will. You have a right to know. But just—" He cut himself off abruptly.

"Just what?" Ryou asked with a small smile.

"Just don't...hate me or think of me differently because of what you see."

There was a hint of confusion in Ryou's eyes. "Why would I think differently of you?" he asked.

"Just don't."

"Well um...I won't."

"Good. You already remember what happened before we met. I left your memory from that part of the day alone." He snapped his fingers and one of the souls around the room came flying over to him. He cupped his hands and it came to rest in them. "As I show you what happened, that part of your own memory will return to you as we go along. Let's go to your soul room."

Ryou nodded. He stood up. Bakura stood up as well. He walked over to the door and Ryou followed close behind.

He moved one of his hands from underneath the specter cupped in them so he could open the door. Ryou walked out. Bakura closed the door behind him.

The two of them headed for Ryou's soul room.

* * *

**I have been thinking. About this story. Lately.  
****Translation: The next several chapters are written out.****  
**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	9. Presents

**Wondering why I haven't updated this week until today, or maybe you're here from tumblr because of my post about postponement? ****I waited until today to update any and all weekly-updated fanfics because today is a special day for a very special someone.**

**This chapter is a shout out and present to randomgirl40, my fellow fanfic author and thiefshipping fangirl, who's birthday is today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RANDOM!  
****She's also my online friend and one of my biggest supporters. If you didn't know, this is the one of my fanfics that she's following. Go check out her stuff, but only if you can handle the randomness!**

* * *

**This story now goes in parts. The first chapter of each part will be marked by a summary before its OpeningAN and the part number and title after its OpeningAN.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero or manga or otherwise, or any of its characters/trademarks._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

_This is what I remember from that day._

_I was in my room, sitting at my desk._

_After um..._that_ day, I switched rooms because I didn't want to see Amane's half of our room because it bothered me. I moved from the room I shared with Amane to the guest room, and stuff from the guest room was moved to the part of the room I had previously occupied._

_Near me were four important things. The first and second were a pencil and the piece of paper I was writing on._

_The third and fourth things were birthday presents from my father. One was a Duel Monsters card. The first I had ever owned. A magic card._

_The Change Of Heart._

_He had gotten it from the same place and at the same time he got the last item from._

_The same place he found the Millenium Ring._

_An artifact from Ancient Egypt. A golden pendant in the shape of a ring the size of my hand, with a triangle nested in its center and five identical and sharp points hanging from it with a smaller ring at the top of it, perhaps to run a string through and hang it around your neck?_

_Despite its age, it looked flawless, completely unaffected by time._

_It intrigued me when he gave it to me. I liked the design and feel of it. But I loved it even more because it was from my father. He told me that he felt like I was meant to have it. He felt some sort of connection to it, and thought of me. Something told him that I was destined to possess the Millenium Ring._

_The person he had purchased it from told him that it was connected to Duel Monsters, which was relatively new at that time. That didn't really make sense to either me or my father because the pendant was ancient but the card game was new. But we just shrugged that off. The person he bought it from said that the pendant and the card should be taken together. My father thought that Duel Monsters would be a game that I'd like, so he introduced it to me with that card, the Change of Heart._

_He had given me the card first, and had thought right about the game being interesting to me. Then he had given me the Ring._

_When I had been given the pendant and held it in my hand for the first time, I felt an odd connection to it, like I _was_ meant to have it. I just felt comfortable holding it. From that moment forward, I felt like someone was always watching over me, and not just Amane if you know what I mean._

_I decided to hang it from my neck straight away. I searched around my room for a minute or two looking for something sturdy to tie to it. I eventually decided to use a random length of cord that was tied to one of the legs of my chair. My father had told me countless times to remove it from that chair because it looked ridiculous, but I had never listened to him. Amane had tied that cord around the leg of the chair, and I never wanted to take it off. But I felt like it would be okay if the cord was going to stay with me because it was hanging around my neck._

_Oh yes, I forgot to mention this, but you probably already figured this out. The Ring, when I got it, didn't have anything tied to it._

_Anyway, I looped that cord through the smaller ring at the top, tied it at the ends, and made sure it was the right length to hang around my neck. I did this all in front of a mirror in my room, and it was perfect._

_When I had it around my neck, I felt that odd connection again. It startled me, but again, it somehow comforted me. I felt like I wasn't alone, but in a good way._

_Ha... Boy, was I wrong..._

* * *

**Prepare for several more chapters of italicized text. Approximately ten, to be exact.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	10. Letter

**Short chapter.**

**Two updates in one day because I love you all.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero or manga or otherwise, or any of its characters/trademarks._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

_So anyway, I was at my desk with my birthday presents. And I was writing another letter to Amane._

_My door was closed so I could enjoy some of my presents by myself, which my father always let me do before I went to bed on my birthday. It was late for me, probably about 9PM or later. _

_I remember this part so well, I can perfectly recite what I had written._

"You don't have to, if you don't..."

"No. I _want_ to."

_Dear Amane,_

_How are you doing? And what about Mum? You're making sure that she isn't worrying too much, right? I hope you two are doing well.  
__You know what day it is, right?" Yes, it's your big brother's birthday. As always, it's okay that you can't get me anything. All I want from you is to know that you are doing well. And besides, Dad already got me something awesome! __He came back from one of his expeditions with this card from a game called "Duel Monsters". I'll eventually learn how to play it and then I'll be the best and beat everyone.  
__The second thing he got me was this beautiful golden pendant called the "Millenium R__  
_

_And that R was the last letter I had ever written on that page._

_The next moment, I felt an odd stirring in my mind. It felt similar to that connection I kept feeling to the Millenium Ring. So I was curious. Perhaps it _was_ my destiny to wear it and its purpose was about to reveal itself to me._

_I began to stand up, just in case whatever was about to happen needed room._

_I put my hands on the desk and began to push myself up. _

_But before I could push myself up even a centimeter, I suddenly lost consciousness._

* * *

_When I woke up, I was in bed, and it was the next morning. _

_And my head hurt. A _lot_._

* * *

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	11. Readiness

**No italics this chapter...**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero or manga or otherwise, or any of its characters/trademarks._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

Bakura's eyes were wide with surprise.

The two of them were sitting on the floor in the center of Ryou's soul room.

"And now you know," Ryou said.

"You never told me about the card and the cord before." Bakura hooked a finger in the cord holding up the Milleinum Ring and lifted it a little. "I take it that this is the same exact cord?"

Ryou nodded. There were a couple of things that he had never told Bakura. Those things were locked away, out of the spirit's reach. Sometimes, the little details were the things that Ryou kept the closest and hid the most securely. The unfinished letter was one of those things. The Change of Heart card was another.

"So, you know exactly where to start," Ryou said. "I want my memory back. I feel like I have a right to remember."

Bakura sighed deeply as he lowered his hand. "I already told you that I would. Stop pestering me about it or I won't give it to you."

Bakura snapped his fingers. The spirit orb he had brought with him from his soul room came to his side. It flew between the two of them and hovered there.

"Are you ready?" Bakura asked Ryou.

Ryou hesitated. He _had_ been waiting for this moment. He had _asked_ for this. But was he really ready for it?

After all, if Bakura had kept the memory from him for his long, maybe there was a _really_ good reason. But what kind of reason? To protect him? To keep information from him that could put him in danger in the future? To hide a part of his past that he didn't want Ryou to know about? Why has he...

_No. I can't let myself stall like this! I...I'm ready for this. I have to be. I..._

"I am," Ryou said at last.

Bakura nodded. He held his hands under the spirit between them.

The blue started spreading out. What looked like a blue fire fell to the floor and began spreading out across the floor and walls of Ryou's soul room until it covered everything in the room except for Ryou and Bakura themselves.

The blue fire began changing color and taking a form.

Ryou noticed Bakura gradually fading away.

At the same time, Ryou felt himself being forced to lie down.

Just before Bakura faded away completely, Ryou heard him say in a whisper:

"_this is what you dont remember_"

And then everything went black.

* * *

**...but italics next chapter.**

**Next chapter also begins part 2.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	12. Introductions

**Part 2 begins here.**

**Prepare for a LOT of words and a LOT of italics.**

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero or manga or otherwise, or any of its characters/trademarks._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

**PART TWO**

_SEPTEMBER SECOND_

* * *

~RYOU~

_He woke up. He was lying on his back on the floor._

_He opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around._

_He wasn't in his bedroom anymore. He was in some strange room he had never seen before._

_But as he looked around, he realized that it sort of _looked_ like his bedroom. At least, some of the things in it looked like his room._

_His bed... His desk... A bookshelf..._

_The door._

_The room had no windows. Only a door._

_Ryou stood up and faced the door._

_"Where am I?" he wondered aloud. "How did I..."_

_He looked around again._

_He had an odd feeling that there was something in the room he couldn't see. Something...he had no idea what._

_He was starting to feel scared. He had no idea where he was or why he was there or..._

_There was a sound at the door. Someone was opening it._

_Ryou's eyes locked on it. His eyes went wide in fear, curiosity, and anticipation._

_The door opened._

_Someone walked in. He wore exactly the same clothes Ryou was wearing, and looked almost exactly the same except for his face and hair. His body looked the same age as he was, 10, but he somehow seemed older...ancient, even. His hair was the same as Ryou's in shade and style, but much spikier and wilder. His eyes were violet and cold, and a different shape from Ryou's._

_Ryou took a few steps back. "Who are you!" he shouted. "And why do you look like me?!"_

~BAKURA~

_His senses locked on the child. Everything...the eyes, the hair, the voice...it was...familiar._

_"Ryo?!" he shouted confusedly._

_The child's eyes widened. He took another step back. "How did you know my name?"_

_"That's your name?" Bakura asked._

_"Y-yes..." the child said nervously. "My name is...Ryou Bakura."_

~RYOU~

_The stranger's eyes widened again. Then he chuckled. "Well then, Ryo Bakura, this is very interesting. You seem to share my name, and the looks of someone I used to know."_

_Ryou's fear was temporarily replaced by confusion. "Huh?"_

_The stranger took a few steps inside the room. He closed the door behind him. Ryou gulped when it closed. He didn't know where he was or what was outside that door, but he felt like if he could get to it, he could escape this strange place._

_The stranger continued. "As it turns out, _my_ name is Bakura. As well. But it's my first name, not my last."_

_Ryou's eyes widened. "What?! That's a bit odd... But... _Who_ are you? And where am I? Why are we here? What do you want from me?!"_

~BAKURA~

_Bakura stared at the child, Ryou. Ryou was pretty much an exact replica of his former host, Ryo. He remembered, very vaguely, seeing Ryou before, that day in the hospital. But it was only for an instant, and Ryou had been younger then. Now that Ryou was older, and Bakura had a closer look at him, he could see the similarities. Even the voices sounded almost exactly the same. The only difference was the accent. Ryou had an English accent, whereas Ryo did not. But other than that, the voices were exactly the same._

_Aside from that face looking like Ryo's, it also looked like someone else. He already knew who Ryou was related to, by now he could _see_ it. And he just had to ask..._

_He took a few more steps closer. "I'll answer your questions, so don't worry. Just tell me something first..."_

_Ryou stared at him with fear and curiosity in his wide and green eyes._

_"Are you by any chance related to someone named Amane?"_

~RYOU~

_Ryou gasped loudly. His eyes went wide. He forgot about his fear and his heart sank. "How do you know about my sister?!" he asked the stranger, "Bakura", with pain and hurt in his voice._

_The stranger frowned. "I knew it. You're related to her and her mother."_

_Ryou's fists clenched and his arms went straight to his sides. "How do you know about them!"_

_"Oh...no reason in particular..." He paused. "I just happened to be a witness to their tragic and unfortunate deaths that happened four years ago."_

_Ryou let out a choked gasp. No one—absolutely _no one_—who knew him or knew his family well ever talked about them or mentioned their deaths. They knew what effect speaking about his mother or sister had on his father, and they knew what affect talking about the event or Amane had on Ryou. The only person who he ever talked about it with was his counselor. Not his father or anyone else he knew._

_And this total stranger was bringing it up again._

_He hadn't seen the accident, but he had seen a glimpse of Amane's body. And he had accidentally seen a picture in the papers about it._

_Despite him not having experienced the tragedy himself, despite him being young at the time and not understanding everything, and despite all of the counseling he had been receiving since then, that day still haunted him every single day since the day he had gone to the hospital with his father. He thought about it every day. It was why he had started writing those letters, because his counselor had suggested he do it. The letters helped. He actually felt better when he wrote them. Secretly, they were the good-bye he had never said. But he will wished he could have said it to her face._

_He missed his mother dearly as well. But he had been much closer to Amane, since their mother was usually working. Their father worked from home, but he was always busy so the two siblings had spent all their time together. He missed Amane he most. He hated being reminded of her by anyone or anything else, because when other things reminded him, they hurt more than if he reminded himself._

_And this room...and this stranger...they were reminding him again!_

_He remembered the letter he had just been writing when he had blacked out. Would he ever get the chance to finish?_

_Ryou fell to his knees and hugged himself tightly. He bowed his head and began to cry._

* * *

~BAKURA~

_Bakura's eyes widened. But not in surprise. Something similar had happened before, for different reasons, but nonetheless it had happened before that one of his new hosts had had a little breakdown in their soul room. For some, it had been because they had not been entirely sane upon meeting him. For some it had been because of exposure to their soul room, which was a pure representation of their very soul and personality, and some people just couldn't handle such a truth being revealed to them in such a way. For others, it was an emotional breakdown, caused more by the memories contained in the room than the actual room itself. This last one seemed to apply to Ryou._

_Bakura knew what to do when it happened. He simply had to let them have their breakdown, wait it out for a while, then try to calm them down and talk to them._

_However, this isn't what Bakura did with Ryou. For a reason he couldn't quite understand, he instantly rushed over to Ryou. "Ryou!" he shouted._

_Ryou showed no sign of having heard. He just continued crying. Crying for his sister and mother. Both of whom Bakura had killed._

_That guilt returned. Or, again, was it regret? It didn't matter._

_Bakura decided then and there that he didn't want to feel guilty about what he had done. Especially because of someone who looked like Ryo, who was involved with the reason why he had done what he was guilty of in the first place! The only way he could do that would be to make up for it..._

_And here was his chance._

_He didn't exactly want to atone for his crimes. Rather, he wanted to make up for what he had done so he wouldn't have to feel guilty about it later. After all, he had sensed that important things would happen in his time with Ryou. And if he was going to use Ryou the way he wanted, guilt would only get in the way. Emotion would always get in the way._

_There were other emotions here that could get in the way. But above all of them, he would first deal with the guilt._

_So, he made a decision: help and protect Ryou to make up for having killed his sister and mother._

_He knelt down and wrapped his arms around the crying boy. He pulled him close in a comforting embrace, similar to one he had given Ryo when they had first met. "Relax," he said as softly as he possibly could. "Calm down and stop crying. You're going to be okay."_

_Surprisingly__, Ryou actually quieted a bit. He didn't stop crying, but he wasn't crying as loudly. He sniffled._

_They stayed like this until Ryou had quieted completely, which took several minutes._

_Bakura loosened the embrace and leaned away from Ryou. He put one hand on the boy's shoulder and wiped away Ryou's still-falling tears with the other. He then moved his hand to under Ryou's chin and gently tilted his head up so their eyes would meet. Looking into Ryou's eyes, their closeness made it even more apparent to Bakura how much Ryou looked like Amane's mother and Ryo. "Better?" he asked._

_Ryou's lip was still trembling slightly, but he nodded slowly. "Y-yes. A l-little bit," he stuttered. "But...who are you?"_

_"Well..." Bakura hesitated. Despite how many hosts he'd had in the past, none of them had been as young as Ryou was. All of them had been teenagers or older. Ryou was only 10. Actually, he had only been 10 for a handful of hours, at most, and his mind was probably still 9. How exactly would he explain this situation to him?_

_He didn't have time to think it over. He would just have to be nice about it. Simple. Don't say anything to scare him._

_"Now don't be alarmed or scared..." he began in a soft and reassuring voice. Of course, his tone was forced._

_He let go of Ryou and let him sit down by himself._

_"I am a spirit inside your pendant, the Millenium Ring. Like you, when I was very young, someone very dear to me was taken away from me. Because of this, my soul became restless and wanted to avenge them. To do that, my spirit was transferred to the Millenium Ring. Since then, the Millenium Ring has been passed on from person to person over the years."_

_Ryou nodded, showing that he understood so far._

_"These people have become my vessels. I'm only a spirit, and I need a body to be able to interact with the outside world. That's why I need people like you become my vessels so you can...help me avenge my loved one."_

Ugh. I've sweetened up my explanations before, but his has to be the thickest sugar-coating I have ever done!

_Ryou nodded again. "Okay?" he said uncertainly. "But...who was it? And...how long ago was it? And why me? And what's the revenge you need to do? And—"_

_Bakura put a finger to Ryou's lips. "Stop asking so many questions. That's not important. You'll find out later. What _is_ important is you promising me that I'll have your help." He lowered his hand. "I can't do it alone. I'll need your help. I need you to be willing to help me."_

_"But—"_

_"You were _meant_ to have the Ring and help me," Bakura continued. "The Ring chose you. It only allows certain people to wear it. It rejects anyone who isn't meant to have it. You were meant to have it, and it accepted you. That means something. It means that you're destined to have it and destined to help me." His gaze bore into Ryou's with such intensity that Ryou's eyes widened and he leaned back a little._

_"Ryou... Do I have your word that you will help me?"_

_"I—"_

_"You're going to have to promise me. There's even a special vow you have to take."_

_"V-vow?"_

_"Yes. It's a simple one. But you have to agree to it."_

_"Wh-wh-what is it?" Ryou asked in a small voice._

_"Do you, Ryou Bakura, accept your status as the current bearer of the Millenium Ring and the responsibilities that come with it, willingly agree to be come my vessel, and help me in my quest?"_

_Usually, Bakura said "host" instead of "vessel" and "quest" by itself instead of "quest for revenge"/"quest for vengeance". However, Ryou was one of the few special situations that compelled him to alter the wording._

_But even if the wording was slightly altered, the agreement would have the same binding effect that it always had. Bakura would be properly bonded to his host and his host would be officially connected to the Millenium Ring._

If_ Ryou accepted._

* * *

**I hope all of these italics aren't hurting your eyes.**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


	13. Vow

_I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, Season Zero or manga or otherwise, or any of its characters/trademarks._

**R&R**

**ENJOY~!**

* * *

~RYOU~

_"Do you, Ryou Bakura, accept your status as the current bearer of the Millenium Ring and the responsibilities that come with it, willingly agree to be come my vessel, and help me in my quest?"_

_Ryou's eyes widened. His mind began racing as a million thoughts and doubts and arguments began chaotically running through it._

What?

_Should I trust "Bakura"? **Should I accept?** Why should I? Why shouldn't I? **Why am I even being asked?** _**Would I be forced to if I refuse?** **Was Bakura lying? ****Why am I even wondering that?** Am I really meant to have the Ring? Why? What for? Said who? Bakura? _**Why **_**WOULDN'T**_** I be meant to have the Ring?** I felt that connection. Is that connection real or not? _Why?_ What if it's fake just to get me to agree? Would I be making the right choice? _**Who is Bakura, anyway?** Why did he pick me?_ **What will happen when I accept?** He's not going to use me, is he? **What happened to his other hosts before me? Will the same happen to me? ****Exactly how much is at stake?** _Does the card I was given have anything to do with this?

_Then, one thought caught his attention above all the rest. One thought standing still and small and quiet, its presence alone the only thing making it stand out._

what does amane have to do with it

Amane...

_All other thoughts stopped in their tracks, as if they had stopped to state incredulously at that one thought, the thought of Amane and how she might be connected to all of this._

_Ryou closed his eyes._

_More thoughts about Amane started forming in his mind._

_She hadn't deserved what had happened to her. There was no reason for what happened to have happened. _It should have never happened._ It could have been prevented, as Ryou felt and as so many others had said, in whispers that they thought Ryou hadn't heard._

_Thoughts of her started coming together in his mind, joining together. Amane's image made itself dominant in his mind's eye. He saw her looking down on him, smiling. Purely innocent._

_What if it had been me instead of Amane? _**What if I had died instead? **What if Amane had survived?_** If she was alive today, and had been given the Millenium Ring instead of me, and was in this room with "Bakura" instead of me...**_**what would she do?**

_Would Amane accept?_

shemight

_Amane didn't have to die._

havesaid

_Perhaps neither did Bakura's loved one?_

yes

_Ryou's eyes shot open, wide and unfocused._

_The other thoughts in his mind—the ones not about Amane—started running around again. But much more calmly. Not as chaotically. More orderly. Quieter._

_In the center of them all, the thoughts of Amane stood together, still. Again, they caught his attention above all his other thoughts._

_It was with Amane in mind, and in his heart, that he focused his bright green eyes on Bakura's bright violet eyes and said_

* * *

~BAKURA~

_"Do you, Ryou Bakura, accept your status as the current bearer of the Millenium Ring and the responsibilities that come with it, willingly agree to be come my vessel, and help me in my quest?"_

_Ryou's eyes widened. Then they stilled and became completely unfocused._

_Bakura kept his eyes locked on Ryou's as he waited for the boy to reply. Even so, he still willfully and purposefully remained cognizant of what was going on in the boy's soul room as he pondered his decision._

_Bakura heard a faint whisper from somewhere in the room. Bakura knew what it was because he had heard something similar to it in his own soul room and his previous hosts' soul rooms countless times before. It was one of Ryou's thoughts being _really_ loud, so loud that it was audible in his soul room. The whisper was _very_ faint and barely noticeable, and Bakura only heard it because he was making the effort to notice such things._

_All that Bakura heard of the thought was... _"What?"

_Then, the whispering rapidly grew louder. No... Wait..._

_The whisper of the thought itself wasn't growing louder. What was happening was that more thoughts were joining in. And out of the corners of his eyes, Bakura noticed some of these thoughts become very faintly visible. They were racing around the room rapidly and chaotically._

_Ryou's mind was in turmoil. A million thoughts and doubts and arguments were running through it so chaotically and loudly, those thoughts were mane eating themselves in his soul room._

_Should I trust "Bakura"? **Should I accept?** Why should I? Why shouldn't I? **Why am I even being asked?** _**Would I be forced to if I refuse?** **Was Bakura lying? ****Why am I even wondering that?** Am I really meant to have the Ring? Why? What for? Said who? Bakura? _**Why **_**WOULDN'T**_** I be meant to have the Ring?** I felt that connection. Is that connection real or not? _Why?_ What if it's fake just to get me to agree? Would I be making the right choice? _**Who is Bakura, anyway?** Why did he pick me?_ **What will happen when I accept?** He's not going to use me, is he? **What happened to his other hosts before me? Will the same happen to me? ****Exactly how much is at stake?** _Does the card I was given have anything to do with this?

_Then, one thought caught his attention above all the rest. One thought standing still and small and quiet, its presence alone the only thing making it stand out._

what does amane have to do with it

Amane...

_All other thoughts stopped in their tracks and quieted instantly, as if they had stopped to state incredulously at that one thought. The thought of Amane and how she might be connected to all of this._

_Ryou closed his eyes._

_More thoughts of Amane made themselves seen and heard in Ryou's soul room._

_She hadn't deserved what had happened to her. There was no reason for what happened to have happened. It should have never happened. It could have been prevented, as Ryou felt and as so many others had said, in whispers that they thought Ryou hadn't heard._

_They started coming together in the center of the room. They joined in a spot just above and behind where Ryou was. They became more visible and took shape and gained color._

_They eventually formed an image of Amane—how she would look if she were still alive today, eight years old—standing behind Ryou and looking down on him, smiling._

_Bakura could see her smiling face, pure and innocent. It was the face that he had murdered its owner for out of uncontrolled rage and hate towards someone who had had that same face before her. But the face didn't have the same affect on him now. He had grown past that._

_Thoughts of Amane continued to form, giving the image more color and shape and form as they joined the other thoughts._

_What if it had been me instead of Amane? _**What if I had died instead? **What if Amane had survived?_** If she was alive today, and had been given the Millenium Ring instead of me, and was in this room with "Bakura" instead of me...**_**what would she do?**

_Would Amane accept?_

iwould

_Amane didn't have to die._

havesaid

_Perhaps neither did Bakura's loved one?_

yes

_Ryou's eyes shot open, wide and unfocused._

_The other thoughts—the ones not about Amane—started running around again. But much more calmly. Not as chaotically. More orderly. Quieter._

_In the center of them all, the thoughts of Amane stood still, together making up the image of Amane that had its hand on Ryou's shoulder. It stood out from the rest of the thoughts._

_The thought of Amane looked away from Ryou, focused its bright blue eyes on Bakura, and nodded. A moment later, Ryou focused his bright green eyes on Bakura's bright violet eyes and said in a confident and certain voice,_

_"I accept."_

* * *

**I hope the underlines go through. They don't seem to be saving...**

**See you next chapter!**

**BYEEEEEEE~!**


End file.
